Sam Altman holds meeting, tells staff OpenAI open to slowing advanced AI, report says

OpenAI is considering slowing the development of its most advanced artificial intelligence systems. According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, CEO Sam Altman told employees this week that OpenAI could slow down its AI work and, ideally, do it together with other leading AI companies.

The discussion comes at a time when there are growing concerns across the AI industry about whether the technology is advancing faster than companies can safely control. According to the report, OpenAI has already slowed parts of model development and paused some internal AI training in recent months because of safety concerns. In July, Altman also said he had spoken with White House officials about the “need” to pace AI development.advertisement❮❯ Read Full StoryResearchers are increasingly warning about AI risksThe latest internal discussion at OpenAI comes as more researchers and AI workers are raising concerns about how quickly the technology is developing and the harm it could possibly cause to human civilisation.

OpenAI’s top scientist, Jakub Pachocki, recently warned about the risks of advanced AI. In a long blog post for OpenAI titled ‘An Alien Mind’, Pachocki argued that AI companies need to make a conscious choice about how to move forward. “I do think this is where the current path leads, and we all need to make a conscious choice on how to proceed,” he wrote. He said the two main options are to strengthen AI safety and monitoring while keeping people in the loop, or “coordinating to slow down future development as needed to build confidence in these measures”.

His comments come as other AI researchers are also raising concerns about the race to build more powerful systems.

Earlier this week, Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon quit his job and accused his former employers, Anthropic and OpenAI, of “gambling with our lives” by racing towards superintelligent AI. In a social media post, Coxon said people building AI believe it could “kill us all by the end of the decade”.

“Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below,” he wrote in his thread on X.I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.— Jacob Coxon (@hilbertspaess) September 9, 2026

Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger also backed the warning. “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,” he wrote on X.

Coxon is not alone. This week, two researchers who recently left roles at Anthropic and Google DeepMind, Joe Benton and Josh Engels, also raised concerns about the rapid pace of AI development. They called for greater transparency about the technology’s risks.

Earlier in late July, more than 1,000 staff across major AI companies signed a petition calling for a mechanism to slow the pace of AI development. Several AI safety researchers have also resigned from major labs in recent months.

Meanwhile, US lawmakers are also calling for a pause in advanced AI development.

US Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar announced that they plan to introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act. The proposed bill would permanently ban the development and deployment of superintelligent AI. It would also temporarily pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator establishes safety rules.- EndsPublished By: Divya BhatiPublished On: Sep 11, 2026 18:35 ISTAlso Read | Researchers warn about new Android malware that can steal OTPs, spy on WhatsApp and harass victimsAlso Read | CMF Buds Neo review: Best earbuds with ANC money can buy at Rs 2,199Also Read | Eggs are up 20% just like iPhone, then why are Indians crying so much about Apple